Question

Hello Rabbi,
 
This isn’t exactly a question, more of a feeling I wanted to share with you:
 
I’m a devoted follower and reader of your writings—and this is also the place to say thank you very much!—and recently I came to an insight about your great added value (one of them at least): defining concepts and terms in a systematic and methodical way, clearly and explicitly putting them on the table. As obvious and trivial as that might ostensibly sound, astonishingly it is not common at all.
 
In very many of your writings you discuss the halakhic terms themselves—what is a legal effect? What is money? Or “secular” concepts like what is a democratic state? What are a people and a nation? And so on. Similarly, much of your writing deals with the definitions and concepts themselves, such as: what is thinking? Should a definition include only essential components? And many more along those lines.
 
Likewise, before discussing “divine providence,” whether it exists or not, it is worth first pausing to ask what exactly “providence” is. And what is that (dubious) field called “Jewish thought” anyway? What does “authority” mean? And wait, before everything else, what is “learning”? And what is Jewish law and halakhic obedience? And serving God? And proof? And God? So when someone asks, “Is there, for heaven’s sake, a 100-percent conclusive proof for the existence of God,” then once we unpack the concepts of “proof” and “God” and define things clearly, suddenly it becomes possible to deal with it… Another example: before defining what “choice and free will” are, one can wonder, get tangled up, and write mountains of meaningless words; but once the definition itself receives a precise meaning, suddenly this or that experiment turns out to be irrelevant…  
 
In short, through conceptual analysis and systematic attention to terminology, a new intellectual world is revealed and laid out—brilliant, foundational, and so critical. Above all, it is an excellent and clear method for drawing conclusions, deciding questions, and dispelling ambiguity.
 
Truly, I could go on and on, but the general point is this: a great many of your posts, books, articles, and quite a bit of time really rest on the methodological importance of definitions and concepts.
 
It’s hard to overstate this enormous contribution to intellectual thought (and, as a result, also to the religious significance that follows from it). So simply—thank you very much!
 
And after all these words, and sorry for being a pest, I just want to raise a small hope: if the day comes when the Rabbi does think about writing a book, then I would ask that the Rabbi consider writing about “Definitions, Terms, and Concepts—their meaning and the importance of systematic methodology.” As important as a book about morality and ethics would be (or other things), in my opinion you have enormous added value דווקא on this topic, and besides, it is a foundation for many other discussions.
 
At least for me, you opened my eyes, and “I know only from myself” that from the moment I was exposed to this, my critical reading of texts became sharper, and forming my intellectual position became easier, sharper, and I hope more correct.
 
That’s it. I’ve gotten it off my chest.
 
Wishing you a happy holiday!